


With every act of love (The good catches up)

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, M/M, SEAL reunion, gratuitous use of steve's smooth dog nickname, it's not actively present in this fic at all but there is some military homophobia in the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22421167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: Steve’s fork is halfway towards his mouth with a bite of risotto – porcini mushroom; he let Danny try it and it’s very good, though not as good as the Williams family recipe – when his eyes suddenly go wide as the dinner plate he’s eating from. “Shit, don’t look,” he says, which is all the warning Danny gets before a booming voice somewhere behind Danny belts, “Smooth Dog!”Or: Steve and Danny go out and then come out, one more intentional than the other.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 45
Kudos: 593





	With every act of love (The good catches up)

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, it’s another random-SEAL-finds-out-about-Steve-and-Danny fic. You know that bit of wisdom about how in fandom, you should write all the tropey fic you want because other people have probably done it before, but nobody is going to have done it the exact way you will? I’m taking that to heart, except one of the other people that have already done it is, uh, me. (I don’t care. I need all the soft fic about people being a little kinder.)
> 
> The title is from _The Good Catches Up_ by Gowan.

Steve’s fork is halfway towards his mouth with a bite of risotto – porcini mushroom; he let Danny try it and it’s very good, though not as good as the Williams family recipe – when his eyes suddenly go wide as the dinner plate he’s eating from. “Shit, don’t look,” he says, which is all the warning Danny gets before a booming voice somewhere behind Danny belts, “Smooth Dog!”

He figures the whole not looking thing is probably a moot point by now, so he turns around in his chair. There’s a guy weaving a path through the rows of dining couples, some of whom are understandably still staring after the sudden assault on their ear drums. The stranger is huge and jacked in the way all of Steve’s Navy SEAL buddies always seem to be, but considering the awful nickname he just yelled across the restaurant, Danny didn’t really need that visual cue to figure out how this guy might be familiar with Steve.

Huge Jacked Man comes to a stop next to their table. Steve awkwardly half gets up and they perform a classic two-slap bro hug thing over Steve’s risotto. Huge Jacked Man is grinning like Christmas came early, but Steve looks less enthused, and his eyes keep flicking to Danny over SEAL #2’s shoulder. Danny suddenly really wishes he had the gift of teleportation, just so he could make a graceful exit.

On the other hand, he probably wouldn’t disappear even if he could, because there’s no way he’s leaving Steve alone with any Navy guys without extensively vetting them first, not even if they look as much like a freshly shaved Wolverine as this guy does. That’s gone awry too many times in the past for Danny to have any kind of goodwill left.

“Smooth Dog,” Huge Jacked Man crows again, when he and Steve separate and Steve sinks back down in his chair. “Fancy seeing you here. I knew you went back home, but I didn’t think I’d actually run into you.” 

Steve grins gamely. “Yeah man, it’s a small island. What brings you here?”

“My sister’s getting hitched. She managed to bag some rich guy, so he paid to fly everyone out to have the wedding here. It’s crazy.”

“Well, congratulations,” Steve offers. “You know, on the free vacation.”

Huge Jacked Man laughs. His laugh is just as booming as his voice was when he called Steve a dog, which has Danny marveling at whether SEAL recruitment specifications actually ask for guys who are enormous and loud, or whether that’s just a coincidence. Huge Jacked Man turns to him before he can figure it out. “So who might you be, then?”

His tone is friendly enough, but it still stings. “I could ask you the same thing,” Danny throws back, a little more bite to it than the guy probably deserves just for happening to show up.

Huge Jacked Man’s eyebrows move heavenward, but Steve jumps in to smooth things over. Smooth Dog, indeed. “Danny, this is Mike Green, a buddy from teams. Mike, this is Danny Williams, my partner.”

The words come out even, steady. Danny isn’t sure why he was bracing himself for some kind of hesitation, but he’s relieved to hear that there is none.

Of course, that’s when Huge Jacked Mike turns out to be the one person on planet earth who sees them, hears Steve introduce Danny as his partner, and _doesn’t_ assume they’re fucking.

“Oh, right,” he says, pointing a finger gun of supposed understanding at Danny. “You’re Smooth Dog’s partner in this special taskforce thing he’s got going.”

Steve’s eyes shoot to Danny. He looks shellshocked, to which Danny can relate. This has never happened to them before – he’s lost count of the number of times they were just standing next to each other, often even with badges and guns strapped to their hips, and people told them they made a nice couple, but they’ve never sat in a restaurant at a table for two with a candle between them while someone assumed that what they have is strictly platonic.

Danny looks up at Mike. He has to look up really damn far, and he’s almost glad he has the excuse that he’s sitting, because it would annoy him to no end how much he’d have to crane his neck even if he were standing. “Yes,” he says, because Steve tried and had zero hesitations, and that’s more than good enough. If he can make this easier now by not completely clearing up any misunderstandings, that’s not lying or hiding, it’s just a decision not to willfully make things more difficult for Steve. “We run the taskforce together.”

Mike almost beams. “Hey, that’s cool. Good to know someone has McGarrett’s back, you know?”

That might just possibly win him a couple of points in Danny’s book. Anyone willing to acknowledge that Steve needs a little support every now and then and that Danny is perfectly capable of providing it, is someone Danny can’t help but appreciate ever so slightly.

Steve, on the other hand, is frowning. Danny raises his eyebrows, very clearly conveying _what crawled up your ass?_ , because they’re all having perfectly polite conversation and they’re doing some version of getting along, which Steve reasonably shouldn’t have any complaints about. Steve just frowns deeper. 

“Yes,” he says, still looking at Danny, until he suddenly switches to staring at Mike instead. There’s a stubborn something in his eyes that says _fight me_ , which gets Danny’s heart beating a little faster. “We’re partners in Five-0, but Danny’s also-”

Ah, there’s the hesitation, Danny thinks, but he’s not even finished thinking it before Steve continues.

“He’s my boyfriend,” Steve says, back to sounding even and steady. If Danny knew him less well than he does, he would buy that Steve’s not even a little nervous about this. As things stand, he can’t help but notice the way Steve’s fingers have tightened on the fork he grabbed hold of at some point after the hug.

Danny wants to reach across and take Steve’s hand, ease his fingers away from that stabby utensil, but he’s not sure that’s what he should be doing right now. He looks up at Mike instead.

Mike looks like someone just hit him over the head with a guinea pig. He’s still standing, because a small rodent is not a very effective weapon even if its screams might be terrifying, but Mike is hurt and shocked anyone would even try it. For a long moment, Danny is getting ready to do some yelling of his own. He feels steam build up in his head and at the back of his throat, so hot he almost starts spewing it before Mike has so much as twitched.

When Mike does twitch, Danny is very glad he waited, because things go a different direction than he thought they would. 

“Wow,” Mike says, voice soft in a way that Danny would have thought impossible, based on what he’s seen of the guy so far. Mike’s whole posture shifts, from straight-backed, broad-shouldered I-successfully-played-football-in-high-school, to something a little hunched, both more guarded and more vulnerable. He rubs his cheek and then his neck. “I didn’t know you- That you were, uh…”

Mike’s eyes flick to Danny, and while most of the steam has dissolved, Danny can’t resist blowing rings around Mike’s confused face. “Didn’t know he was what, huh? Disturbingly good at chess? A bigger Dora the Explorer fan than my preschooler?”

“Danny,” Steve says. There’s a certain measure of reproach there, but honestly, if Steve doesn’t want Danny to be a little shit sometimes, he probably shouldn’t be dating Danny at all, and Danny knows Steve knows that.

Mike glances around, but it doesn’t look like he sees anything. It’s a somewhat panicky reflex. “Me, uh,” he says. “Me too.”

Okay, so. Danny does feel like a bit of a heel now, seeing as Mike is probably not talking about the Dora fanboying.

“Oh,” Steve says, face gone slack. He sits back in his chair. “Hey, that’s…”

Mike’s gone a little pink around the nose and in contrast to Steve he’s stiffened up, but he nods. “Yeah. Jesus.”

There’s some intense stare of painfully masculine understanding going on. Danny lets it happen for a while before it starts to look more painful than masculine. “So are you taking a date to the wedding?” he asks, more to break the weird tension than because he actually cares. 

Also kind of because he cares a little bit though, maybe. The more visibly gay or bi macho guys there are out there, the less likely that men in future generations will end up forced to carry the weight of an entire country’s expectations on their backs the way Steve and Mike did.

And Danny, too. Not the same way, but still.

Mike laughs a little, though he sounds stunned and surprised more than amused. “No. This just now, that was, uh- The first time I’ve actually told anyone. In words.”

There were barely any words involved, but Danny refrains from pointing that out. “It’s a bitch,” he says, sympathetically.

Mike stumbles his way through an actual laugh. “Yeah, you could say that.” 

“Feels good to say it though, right?” Steve asks. Danny notes he has let go of his fork at some point. His hand is just lying on the table now, relaxed and unarmed. 

“Fuck, yeah.” Mike laughs again, and it already sounds a little less awkward than last time. Danny’s willing to view that as progress. “Anyway, I should probably get back. I said I was headed for the men’s room, so they’ll be wondering if I have serious medical issues by now.”

Steve sits up, and he looks completely genuine when he says, “Hey, we should get together and catch up, if you have time during all the wedding prep.”

“If?” Danny asks. “Aren’t you guys trained for stealth getaways in hostile territory?” 

Another Mike laugh. “I’m sure I can wrangle some time,” he agrees. “I’ll text you.” 

“Yeah, man. I’ll hold you to that.” Steve offers up a fist that Mike bumps, and Danny is a little relieved there are no more hugs that force him to worry about wine spilling all over the table when Steve and Mike’s combined not-hetero SEAL exuberance tips over a glass. 

Mike is still grinning. “Keep doing what you’re doing, McGarrett. You done good.”

“Flattered,” Danny says, before Steve can get a word out. Mike slaps him on the shoulder hard enough that Danny would have thought of it as a personal attack if he hadn’t known it’s probably just misguided, well-meaning compensation for having had feelings two seconds ago. He’s seen it happen from up close enough times.

“See you guys,” Mike says, back to his booming voice again. He gives them a mock salute, a last grin, and makes his way back through all those tables.

Steve stares after Mike for a long moment, a complicated expression on his face. For once, Danny just lets him be quiet, watching Steve in turn until finally Steve shakes off whatever was going through his mind, looks at him through his eyelashes, and quirks a smile, still oddly serious. “Hey, Danno. Thanks.”

Danny kind of wants to cry about his brave, brave SEAL. He makes sure he doesn’t, because he’s pretty sure Steve is feeling emotionally freaked out enough already – and if not, Danny definitely is – so instead he goes for a snappy response that comes with the ease of long practice and will steer them back towards a sense of normalcy. “If that’s your way of guilting me into paying for dinner, you’re shit out of luck.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Steve flashes him a quick grin before he digs back into his risotto.

Grabbing Steve’s hand still wouldn’t be very practical – there’s still food in front of Danny that he wants to consume and he needs both hands for that – but under the table Danny moves his foot inch by inch until his ankle is nudging Steve’s. Without missing a bite, Steve returns the pressure.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! You are wonderful and comments are, too, should you choose to take the time to leave one. ❤
> 
> I’m on Tumblr as [itwoodbeprefect](https://itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com), or with my exclusively H50 (and mostly McDanno) sideblog as [five-wow](https://five-wow.tumblr.com).


End file.
